Eddie George has long had his doubts about the economic viability of the single currency, seeing it as a politically-driven project. Yesterday he was more outspoken about them than he has been before - a luxury he can afford as the central bank governor in a country whose political commitment to EMU is tepid to lukewarm.

A jury yesterday rejected claims for damages by former Tory MP Rupert Allason after he was called names in a Have I Got News For You diary. Paul McCann, Media Correspondent, hails a victory for those with a sense of humour.

Four academics took the fight against the euro to Germany's highest court yesterday. In theory their action could stop monetary union in its tracks, but, as Imre Karacs explains, that is the least likely outcome.

Germany is 40bn deutschmarks short of achieving the goals laid down by the Maastricht Treaty for European Monetary Union. In their half- yearly report, experts estimating the government's tax revenue yesterday uncovered a hole that is DM17.3bn deep this year, and they said another DM22.4bn would go missing next year.

Whatever Happened to the Tories by Ian Gilmour and Mark Garnett, Fourth Estate, pounds 25 Collapse of Stout Party by Julian Critchley and Morris on Halcrow, Gollancz, pounds 17.99,; Why did the Conservative Party get things so wrong for so long? As the first post-debacle conference ends, John Biffen assesses two inquests by his former parliamentary colleagues

European governments are discussing ways of helping ease Britain's way towards joining monetary union. In particular, sterling may not have to go back into the EU's exchange rate mechanism if Tony Blair were to offer a definite timetable for joining the single currency. Katherine Butler says that the EU just wants a clear signal of Labour's intentions. Encouraged by speculation that the Labour government is committed to Emu and convinced that sterling's entry would dramatically enhance the Euro's international credibility, the view is strengthening in European political circles that everything must be done to facilitate Mr Blair. This would mean fudging the interpretation of the Maastricht treaty's rules to waive ERM participation, symbolically painful since the humiliation of Black Wednesday when sterling was ejected from the grid after a massive speculative attack on the pound.

Last weekend's decision by European finance ministers to fix bilateral exchange rates for EMU next May, eight months ahead of the 1999 deadline, has given a further boost to the project. But many on our panel believe the optimism is based more on sentiment than reality.